5 Study Habits

I went back to school a few months ago at Aveda, which is really more of an internship with their E-I-T Program (Educator In Training!) and so far it’s been such an amazing expereince, but it has been a lot of work. Right now I’m working on my color certification and the testing for it feels pretty intense (for example: if the guest has a level 6 gold new growth, 33% grey, 8 red mids and ends. Color is uneven, ends are porous and damaged, and wants to be a golden blonde with ashy highlights… Formulate a color formula for this guest! Yeah, stressful!!!) That sort of thing! So studying for the exam has been stressful, but it has been fun to go back go all my old studying habits. To be fair, I enjoy studying but only if I have plenty of time to do it, but that is almost NEVER the case, is it? So I wanted to share my top 5 studying tips that I share with the students at the school, and use myself every time I have an exam or test. I hope that they help you out!

1. Clear Your Head

First things first, not much is going to stick if you have 100 things on your to do list that are keeping you stressed, or you haven’t eaten in 5 hours, and have gotten four hours of sleep for the past week. Taking care of yourself is the number one rule of mine with studying. I have seen SUCH difference in my grades and tests scores when I started to really discipline myself. First thing I do is make a list of what I need to get done (short term) for that day and do it all before I start studying. If not, that To-Do list is cluttering my thoughts and I can’t focus. Meditate, go for a quick walk for fresh air, whatever it is that works best for you. Sometimes I even take 10 minute power naps before I start studying.

2. Set Time

This is so important! I feel like in high school I always studying at the worst times- after school before my sports practice started, or ten minutes before class began. It’s important to set aside time to study. On the other hand, I think it’s good to study whenever you get a few minutes (see number 3!) but when you really need to learn the information, it’s important to have time set aside to study. I’ve never really believed in “cram” sessions with studying, maybe because they just never worked for me!

3. Flash Cards

This is my favorite! I always love making flash cards when I have to remember certain terms, It’s easy because you can carry them with you and pull them out whenever you have some time and learn a few new terms. I used to do this ALL the time. Instead of looking at my phone, I would pull out my flash cards and study if I was in line at a food place, at the dentist office, etc (is my inner nerd coming out yet? Haha!) You would be amazed at how much that you will learn in those few minutes throughout the day.

4. Study Buddy

I love love love my study buddies! I learn SO much quicker when I have somebody learning with me and bouncing ideas and thoughts back and forth. Especially with thing like color formulations, because you have to brainstorm what you would do and it helps when you have two people thinking and figuring it out. I LOVE studying with other people, just make sure it’s somebody that is serious about the test or exam, or else it will do the opposite affect and you won’t get any work done. (P.S. I don’t recommend studying with really cute boys :p)

5. Get Serious

I love having fun studying and making a game out of it, making flash cards and all those things, but ultimately you have to be serious about getting good grades. Maybe you’re somebody that doesn’t have to study that much to get good grades, maybe you are somebody that studies for hours and barley passes. But either way, you have to really dicipline yourself and get down to the work. Something I like to do is ask myself why I’m studying. What do I want from this test, this class, or this degree. Sometimes you have to go deep! And see the whole picture! Tell yourself that passing this test, or exam, or class is what is going to get you where you want to be. I know it’s hard when you’re studying chemistry and you have no intention of being a chemist, and you hate the subject. But passing that class will get you where you really want to be, wherever that is!